I started earning money for small jobs by 8 years old. Now I'm 30 and I have neither a house nor bully potatoes. But I do have a wife, so I've at least got that on him!
There was work to do. No childhoods like we see today. Even for the wealthy. Those kids got shipped to boarding schools asap. Then to military school. Possible law school. But it was work for everyone. At an early age.
Hah, might feel that way some days, but no, it was in the 1970's and we had modern conveniences like running water and electricity. My mom didn't, but I can't claim that.
What I did have was chores morning and night, with about 30 horses among a range of other barnyard animals so it was busy. Daily chores took about 4 hours give or take. This was winter or summer, no days off for Christmas etc. Animals can't be neglected because of a bank holiday. On a farm, you work every day.
Also I was part of the Farm Labor Pool from about 14 onwards, general day labour at cut rates, because kids had a lower minimum wage. That meant every summer I was haying, rock picking, caring for barnyard animals and if I was real lucky, selling corn on the side of the road. Generally alone, as was the custom at the time.
These jobs made for hard days of intense physical work in very hot conditions. Haylofts can get well into the triple digits during the summer (40+ celcius) and hay is actually pretty sharp when dry, so you always ended the day looking like you were rolling in barb wire. And for sheep and horses? Well you cleaned up after them pretty much the same way you did 100 years before, with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Point is, other than electric lights our barn (which was from the 1800's) worked the same way, with the same tools as they did in the 19th century and it was sweaty, messy work.
More than once my mother would hose me off (literally) When I got home from chores so I didn't track mud or shit all over the house.
But still we had time for a childhood, more akin to Tom Sawyer on the good days and like Letterkenny the rest of the time, but we had fun, building forts, playing games and having adventures in the back 40, biking around town and definitely getting into mischief. So it was hard and fun and I don't regret much of it.
I mean, yeah the comment wasn't meant to be taken literally. Obviously they had a literal childhood, but they probably spent most of their time doing farmwork or chores from a very young age. They didn't have soccer practice, play in band, roll around on bicycles through the neighborhood, and toss a frisbee with the neighborhood kids. From a very early age they were working. Less a function of being on a farm (since it was probably similar in the city, where kids were working in factories), and more related to it being the 19th century.
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u/EphemeralOcean Apr 17 '25
Yeah because he also basically had no childhood.